Adrianne Haslet-Davis was one of the 200-plus people wounded in the Boston Marathon bombing April 15, 2013. Tonight in a CNN Special Report titled The Survivor Diaries, Anderson Cooper shares with viewers the story of her recovery after losing part of her leg.

Cooper first met Haslet-Davis, who had been a dancer and dance instructor, in her hospital room at Boston Medical Center a few days after the bombing, where she vowed to the news anchor that she would dance again.

"I feel like somebody has come along and said, 'Oh, we're not going to let you do that anymore,'" she told Cooper at the time. "I'm going to prove them wrong."

"Often in the news business, we don't revisit people we've met," Cooper noted on his AC360 blog. "After that first interview with Adrianne, I knew I wanted to continue visiting with her to get a real sense of her road to recovery."

To those ends, Haslet-Davis agreed to record video diaries to document her progress over the past year, including her rehabilitation and physical therapy. Her raw videos are woven into the special report, which airs tonight at 10 Eastern.

Haslet-Davis said her participation in the documentary was meant to inspire other amputees. "I know that I'm not inspired by the amputee that's standing on top of the mountain or the amputee that crossed the finish line. I'm inspired by the struggle and the journey it took to get there," she told CNN.

"If terrorism is violence designed to send a message, to instill fear, then the terror attacks in Boston failed," Cooper concluded. "The people of Boston pulled together, stood tall, and moved forward. A year after the bombings, Adrianne walks tall, and yes, dances with grace and poise."